Cable Queen
by Paula Wagner Apfelbach '83
What do you do when you've made it to the top, but the payoff isn't there? If you're Kay Smith Koplovitz '67, you share your story so that others can learn from your difficult life lessons.
Koplovitz created a name for herself in 1977 as the first female network television president and founder of USA Networks - what she describes as the first basic cable network in history. She ran that company for twenty-one years, launched the Sci-Fi Channel in 1992, and began USA International in 1994.
When her company was sold for $4.5 billion, Koplovitz learned the hard way that building something is not the same as having equity in it, and "when you don't have the equity," she says, "you don't really get the big payout."
Koplovitz decided to put her negative experiences to positive use in a new book called Bold Women, Big Ideas: Learning to Play the High-Risk Entrepreneurial Game (Public Affairs), which came out in May. Specifically, the New York City author wants to share her knowledge of the funding and ownership processes so that other women can "understand that the way they set up their businesses is going to determine what their net worth is going to be at the end of the line."
What do you do when you've made it to the top, but the payoff isn't there? If you're Kay Smith Koplovitz '67, you share your story so that others can learn from your difficult life lessons.
Koplovitz created a name for herself in 1977 as the first female network television president and founder of USA Networks - what she describes as the first basic cable network in history. She ran that company for twenty-one years, launched the Sci-Fi Channel in 1992, and began USA International in 1994.
When her company was sold for $4.5 billion, Koplovitz learned the hard way that building something is not the same as having equity in it, and "when you don't have the equity," she says, "you don't really get the big payout."
Koplovitz decided to put her negative experiences to positive use in a new book called Bold Women, Big Ideas: Learning to Play the High-Risk Entrepreneurial Game (Public Affairs), which came out in May. Specifically, the New York City author wants to share her knowledge of the funding and ownership processes so that other women can "understand that the way they set up their businesses is going to determine what their net worth is going to be at the end of the line."
But Bold Women, Big Ideas isn't Koplovitz's only contribution to female entrepreneurship. When she started researching the venture capital (VC) markets in 1997, women were receiving a mere 1.7 percent of the available funds because they were highly disconnected from the male-dominated VC market.
Koplovitz set out to change that by helping to create Springboard 2000, an organization that gives women entrepreneurs chances to present their proposals to venture capitalists. Despite recent, dramatic declines in the stock market and VC outlays, Springboard 2000 has nonetheless reviewed 2,500 business plans for women entrepreneurs, presented 214 companies to VCs, and raised $750 million for those companies, an amazing 85 percent of which are still in business today.
Koplovitz set out to change that by helping to create Springboard 2000, an organization that gives women entrepreneurs chances to present their proposals to venture capitalists. Despite recent, dramatic declines in the stock market and VC outlays, Springboard 2000 has nonetheless reviewed 2,500 business plans for women entrepreneurs, presented 214 companies to VCs, and raised $750 million for those companies, an amazing 85 percent of which are still in business today.
